CVE-2026-53017: f2fs: fix data loss caused by incorrect use of nat_entry flag

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-06-24 · updated 2026-10-30

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: f2fs: fix data loss caused by incorrect use of nat_entry flag Data loss can occur when fsync is performed on a newly created file (before any checkpoint has been written) concurrently with a checkpoint operation. The scenario is as follows: create & write & fsync 'file A' write checkpoint - f2fs_do_sync_file // inline inode - f2fs_write_inode // inode folio is dirty - f2fs_write_checkpoint - f2fs_flush_merged_writes - f2fs_sync_node_pages - f2fs_flush_nat_entries - f2fs_fsync_node_pages // no dirty node - f2fs_need_inode_block_update // return false SPO and lost 'file A' f2fs_flush_nat_entries() sets the IS_CHECKPOINTED and HAS_LAST_FSYNC flags for the nat_entry, but this does not mean that the checkpoint has actually completed successfully. However, f2fs_need_inode_block_update() checks these flags and incorrectly assumes that the checkpoint has finished. The root cause is that the semantics of IS_CHECKPOINTED and HAS_LAST_FSYNC are only guaranteed after the checkpoint write fully completes. This patch modifies f2fs_need_inode_block_update() to acquire the sbi->node_write lock before reading the nat_entry flags, ensuring that once IS_CHECKPOINTED and HAS_LAST_FSYNC are observed to be set, the checkpoint operation has already completed.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 3.8 before 7.0.10 — fixed in 7.0.10
Linux: 3.8 — fixed in 7.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.0.10; Linux 7.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2026-53017 or the next vulnerability affects your stack